The Annual Bang on a Can People’s Commissioning Fund Concert on the Ecstatic Music Festival features world premieres by George Lewis and Angélica Negrón, plus a new look at “historic” PCF-commissioned pieces by Pamela Z, Annea Lockwood, Lukas Ligeti and Sonic Youth’s Thurston Moore.

This concert will be a New Sounds Live co-presentation hosted by WNYC’s John Schaefer & streamed live on Q2 Music.

Bang on a Can’s People’s Commissioning Fund (PCF) is a radical partnership between artists and audiences to commission works from adventurous composers.

Iva Bittová is known foremost as a violinist-vocalist whose distinct music blends styles from many global music cultures – eastern European folk, western classical, Indian, Middle Eastern, and American rock ‘n roll. In a solo appearance sure to feature her many powers, Bittová’s performance reflects the central themes of cultural exchange and influence present in the exhibition Veiled Meanings: Fashioning Jewish Dress from the Collection of the Israel Museum, Jerusalem.

The Bang on a Can All-Stars reunite with the Choir of Trinity Wall St, conducted by Julian Wachner, for this performance of Julia Wolfe’s Anthracite Fields in Washington DC!

This event is part of the Kennedy Center’s annual new celebration DIRECT CURRENT–an immersive showcase for cutting-edge contemporary arts and culture with a focus on interdisciplinary creations.

Bang on a Can All-Stars perform Field Recordings!

Julia Wolfe, Reeling
Florent Ghys, An Open Cage
Michael Gordon, Gene Takes a Drink (with film)
Tyondai Braxton, Casino Trem
Christian Marclay, Fade to Slide (with film)
Richard Reed Parry, The Brief and Never Ending Blur
Todd Reynolds, Seven Sundays
Jóhann Jóhannsson, Hz (with film)
Steve Reich, The Cave of Machpelah (arr Michael Gordon)
Bryce Dessner, Letter 27 (with film)
Anna Clyne, A Wonderful Day

Bang on a Can All-Stars perform Field Recordings on the Easterfestival IMAGO DEI at the Klangraum Minoritenkirche Krems!

Program:

Julia Wolfe, Reeling 
Florent Ghys, An Open Cage
Christian Marclay, Fade to Slide with film 
David Lang, unused swan 
Richard Reed Parry, The Brief And Never Ending Blur
Michael Gordon, Gene Takes a Drink with film by Bill Morrison 
René Lussier, Nocturne 
Todd Reynolds, Seven Sundays 
Anna Thorvaldsdottir, Fields 
Jóhann Jóhannsson, Hz with film 
Steve  Reich, The Cave of Machpelah (arr. Michael Gordon)
Anna Clyne, A Wonderful Day

Bang on a Can goes to Big Ears!

The Big Ears Festival is an international cultural gathering, and a dynamic, interactive experience that explores connections between musicians and artists, crossing all musical genres while interfacing with film, performance, and the visual arts.

There are few festivals with line ups quite like this.

The All-Stars will present 3 performances:

-The music of Michael Gordon, David Lang, Julia Wolfe to celebrate 30 years of Bang on a Can. (Michael, David, and Julia are the 2018 composers in residence at Big Ears as well!)

–Anthracite Fields

–Field Recordings

Performing alongside the exhibition Scenes from the Collection, cellist, composer, and improviser Tomeka Reid brings in her own remarkable collection of leading Chicago and New York based musicians to perform a set of music combining her love for groove along with freer concepts.

The Tomeka Reid Quartet is: Tomeka Reid, cello; Jason Roebke, bass; Mary Halvorson, guitar; Tomas Fujiwara, drums

Bang on a Can returns to downtown Manhattan with its annual incomparable super-mix of boundary-busting music from around the corner and around the world! The 2018 Bang on a Can Marathon will feature 10 hours of rare performances by some of the most innovative musicians of our time side-by-side with some of today’s most pioneering young artists.

Its FREE!!!

Music By:
Jeffrey Brooks, Tom Chiu, Fjola Evans, Michael Gordon, David Lang, Nicole Lizee, Dylan Mattingly, Jessie Montgomery, Brendon Randall-Myers, Terry Riley, Frederic Rzewski, Gabriella Smith, Galina Ustvolskaya, Aleksandra Vrebalov, Alex Weiser, Julia Wolfe

Performances by:
Terry Riley, Bang on a Can All-Stars with special guests Eric Berryman, Todd Reynolds, and Gyan Riley, Contemporaneous, David Friend, Ethel, FLUX Quartet, Maya Beiser and Kate Valk, Mazz Swift and Therese Workman, NYU Contemporary Ensemble/Jonathan Haas, Robert Osborne, So Percussion, Stephin Merritt (Magnetic Fields) and Sam Davol, Turning Jewels Into Water (Val Jeanty and Ravish Momin), Vicky Chow, Xenia Rubinos, and MORE!

Bang on a Can and the Noguchi Museum present the Black Phebe Trio with Erik Friedlander, the NYC-based cellist and composer; pianist and accordionist Shoko Nagai and percussionist Satoshi Takeishi. Friedlander describes Black Phebe as his ‘three trios in one’ band. Nagai’s charismatic performance on accordion and piano/keyboards changes the feel of the group depending upon which instrument she’s playing.  When she plays accordion the band is a world-music juggernaut playing virtuosic, mixed meter works or sweet folk songs. With Nagai on keyboard, the band is a piano trio or a classical chamber group.

This performance is free with museum admission.

Frank London’s Klezmer Brass All-Stars perform on the Museum Mile “NYC’s biggest block party!”

Bang on a Can and the Noguchi Museum present Elena Moon Park, a Brooklyn based multi-instrumentalist with a passion for the preservation of diverse music and culture in the United States. She is actively performing all-ages music from her album Rabbit Days and Dumplings, featuring reimagined folk and children’s songs from East Asia, including Korea, Japan, China, Taiwan and Tibet.  Released in fall 2012 by Festival Five Records, the album has received great feedback, including a Parent’s Choice Award & a feature on NPR’s All Things
Considered.

This performance is free with museum admission

The Bang on a Can Summer Music Festival at MASS MoCA is a 3-week residency and festival of today’s most exciting new music. We invite 40 performers and composers from all over the world to learn from and play alongside our faculty, the world’s most accomplished contemporary musicians. The public performances include free performances in the community, recitals in the gallery and a blowout festival finale on July 28.

July 12-27: Daily (Mon-Sat) recitals in the galleries at 1:30 and 4:30

July 21: Julia Wolfe’s Anthracite Fields with the Bang on a Can All-Stars and The Choir of Trinity Wall St, Julian Wachner, conductor

July 23: Ten world premieres by our festival composers

July 28: Marathon Concert with Steve Reich. 6 hours of non-stop music performed by our festival fellows and faculty.

Brooklyn based composer, pianist, and vocalist Judith Berkson performs a dynamic set featuring her unique blend of cantorial music, Hebrew liturgy, and her innovative indie-contemporary composed songs,  in conjunction with the exhibit Chaim Soutine: Flesh.

On Sunday August 12, at 3pm, Bang on a Can and the Noguchi Museum present String Noise!

Blurring the lines of classical and avant-garde, the “trailblazing” (Time Out New York) duo String Noise (Conrad Harris and Pauline Kim Harris) will perform music by Georg Friedrich Haas (Fuga), David Lang (Warmth), Pauline Kim Harris (Sugar), Jessie Cox (Dark, Light), Paul Reller (Piss Rows) and Richard Carrick (Phosphene). The performance also features punk covers and the title work of their debut album on Northern Spy Records, The Book of Strange Positions, by 2018 Guggenheim fellow Eric Lyon. stringnoiseduo.com

Bang on a Can All-Stars play the Marathon-style extravaganza “Extended Play” in Sydney!  Extended Play is a 12 hour micro-festival that explores and celebrates new music in every format imaginable. From noon to midnight, music in all shapes and sizes will transform multiple spaces within City Recital Hall. Be prepared to challenge your preconceived ideas of how music can be created, performed and consumed.

This isn’t a festival where you sit and listen to music with your hands neatly folded on your lap. At Extended Play they want you to hear music, and also to see it, feel it, move with it and move around it.

The Bang on a Can All-Stars will play

David Lang, cheating, lying, stealing
Michael Gordon, Gene takes a drink
JG Thirlwell, Anabiosis
Julia Wolfe, Believing
Philip Glass, Closing
Steve Martland, Horses of Instruction

The All-Stars perform at the Melbourne Recital Hall!!

Program:

David Lang, cheating, lying, stealing
Michael Gordon, For Madeleine
JG Thirlwell, Anabiosis
Julia Wolfe, Believing
Kate Moore, Ridgeway
Philip Glass, Closing
Steve Martland, Horses of Instruction

The All-Stars perform at the Home of the Arts on the Gold Coast of Australia!

Program:

David Lang cheating, lying, stealing
Michael Gordon, For Madeleine
JG Thirlwell, Anabiosis
Julia Wolfe, Believing
Kate Moore, Ridgeway
Philip Glass, Closing
Steve Martland, Horses of Instruction

Koto visionary Yumi Kurosawa presents original and classic Japanese music on Japan’s traditional instrument. Every era does something different with its musical traditions, and each moment considers its music “new.” Kurosawa is devoted to creating her own music, combining the spirit of the traditional with music of the larger world. This program includes works entitled GreenPt; Rapture 1, 2, 3; JBTransfer (with electronics); One Droplet; Takeda Lullaby; Inner Space; The Harvest Moon + Looking up at the sky (with electronics). yumikuro.com

Bang on a Can and Found Sound Nation’s cultural diplomacy project OneBeat tours the East Coast! They start with a 2 week residency at the Atlantic Center for the Performing Arts, New Smyrna Beach, FL, and then tour to Charlston, SC; Baltimore, MD; Washington, DC, and a final concert in New York City October 12 at Murmrr (@ Union Temple, Brooklyn, NY).

Julia Wolfe’s Pulitzer Prize winning Anthracite Fields comes to Kansas City! We are delighted to be partnering with Open Spaces and the KC Chorale.

The Bang on a Can All-Stars perform Field Recordings at DePauw!

Program
Julia Wolfe: Reeling
Florent Ghys: An Open Cage
Michael Gordon: Gene Takes a Drink (with film by Bill Morrison)
Christian Marclay: Fade to Slide (with film by Christian Marclay)
David Lang: unused swan
Todd Reynolds: Seven Sundays
Caroline Shaw: Really Craft When You
Steve Reich: The Cave of Machpelah
Bryce Dessner: Letter 27 (with film)
Anna Clyne: A Wonderful Day

Help Bang on a Can honor PAULA COOPER as we celebrate ART’S GIFT TO MUSIC: THE BIRTH OF A MUSICAL REVOLUTION.

The Mile-Long Opera, a citywide public engagement project, brings together 1,000 singers from across New York for free performances on the High Line, October 3—7, 2018. FREE but advance tickets required, Tickets available starting Wednesday 9/5! 

Co-created by architects Diller Scofidio + Renfro and Pulitzer Prize-winning composer David Lang, with words and lyrics by acclaimed poets Anne Carson and Claudia Rankine, The Mile-Long Opera: a biography of 7 o’clock is an ambitious, collective, free choral work that shares personal stories from hundreds of New Yorkers about life in our rapidly changing city.

The All-Stars play a high octane set at the Delaware Museum of Art!

Program:
Julia Wolfe, Big Beautiful Dark & Scary
Michael Gordon, For Madeline
David Lang, Sunray
Steve Reich, Electric Counterpoint
Philip Glass, Closing
Steve Martland, Horses of Instruction

Bang on a Can All-Stars perform on the Vertice Fesitval at the Sala Miguel Covarrubias at Centro Cultural Universitario UNAM (National University) in Mexico City, Mexico!

Program:
Julia Wolfe: Big Beautiful Dark & Scary
Michael Gordon: For Madeline
Josue Collado: Joie de Vivre (world premiere!)
David Lang: Sunray
-intermission-
Steve Reich: Piano Counterpoint
Philip Glass: Closing
Steve Martland: Horses of Instruction

This All-Stars performance will include Michael Gordon’s epic new work Big Space with local orchestra musicians!

Program:
David Lang: Sunray
Julia Wofe: Big Beautiful Dark & Scary
Steve Martland: Horses of Instruction
Ornette Coleman: Haven’t been where I left
Philip Glass: Closing
Michael Gordon: Big Space

The All-Stars at the Cello Biennalle!

Program:
David Lang – cheating, lying, stealing
Michael Gordon – Light is Calling, with film by Bill Morrison
Julia Wolfe – Believing
Aart Strootman – Lesson 25 – Time
Steve Reich – The Cave of Machpelah
Julia Wolfe – Reeling
Anna Clyne – A Wonderful Day

The Bang on a Can All-Stars perform Road Trip, a new multimedia piece by Michael Gordon, David Lang, and Julia Wolfe, in Moscow at Zaryadye – a new cultural center and park in the heart of the city!

The All-Stars celebrate the 3 year anniversary of the “Great Amber Hall” (Lielais Dzintars) in Liepaja. The program will include selections from our project Field Recordings

Julia Wolfe: Reeling 
Caroline Shaw: Really Craft When You 
Christian Marclay: Fade to Slide with film by Christian Marclay 
David Lang: unused swan 
Michael Gordon: Gene Takes a Drink with film by Bill Morrison 
– intermission-
Todd Reynolds: Seven Sundays 
Steve Reich: The Cave of Machpelah 
Florent Ghys: An Open Cage 
Jóhann Jóhannsson: Hz with film by Jóhann Jóhannsson 
Bryce Dessner: Letter 27 with film 
Anna Clyne: A Wonderful Day 

The All-Stars join students at the The Academy of Music and Performing Arts at Fontys University, for a residency and concert performing the following:

Kraftwerk: ‘ruckzuck’ and ‘megaherz’ (performed by students)

Louis Andriessen: Langzame Verjaardag (performed by students & BOAC)
Louis Andreissen: Workers Union (performed by students & BOAC)

Plus Selections from Field Recordings
Julia Wolfe: Reeling
Caroline Shaw: Really Craft When You
Christian Marclay: Fade to Slide with film by Christian Marclay
David Lang: unused swan
Aart Strootman: Lesson 25 – Time
Michael Gordon: Gene Takes a Drink with film by Bill Morrison
Steve Reich: The Cave of Machpelah
Anna Clyne: A Wonderful Day

The Bang on a Can All-Stars and Cantus Domus, Ralf Sochaczewsky, conductor, will perform Julia Wolfe’s Anthracite Fields in Berlin, Germany!

The Bang on a Can All-Stars and the Choir of Trinity Wall Street, Julian Wachner, conductor, will perform Julia Wolfe’s Anthracite Fields in the place that inspired the piece – Scranton, PA in anthracite coal region, in honor of the 250th year of anthracite coal. 

The performance is at the People Security Theater at Lackawanna College, Washington and Vine in Scranton, PA

You can also join them for their annual dinner on November 8, with guest speaker Julia Wolfe. 

Music Future is a concert series started in 2014 by composer, conductor, and pianist Joe Hisaishi. Intended to introduce the latest in contemporary classical music, Music Future includes works from composers Arnold Schoenberg, John Adams, David Lang, Philip Glass, and Bryce Dessner performed by the Future Orchestra. In addition, Hisaishi presents a newly composed work each year. This year, David Lang will join Music Future at Carnegie Hall.

Mystical Soviet-era composer Galina Ustvolskaya meets American minimalist master Philip Glass in a brilliant contrast of works for solo piano, performed by the remarkable Jenny Lin. Set alongside the exhibition Chagall, Lissitzky, Malevich: The Russian Avant Garde in Vitebsk, 1918-1922, this performance features the New York premiere of Philip Glass’ Passacaglia in a collision with recently re-discovered music from early 20th century Russia.

Julia Wolfe’s Anthracite Fields, performed by the Bang on a Can All-Stars and The Trinity Choir of Wall St, Julian Wachner conductor, at Zankel Hall!

“[Anthracite Fields] captures not only the sadness of hard lives lost…but also of the sweetness and passion of a way of daily life now also lost. The music compels without overstatement. This is a major, profound work.” – Mark Swed, Los Angeles Times.